The puzzle of the soul 4: The black locket

2: The order

The summer wasn't the best, in Lilac's opinion. She was alone more than usual since Tom had to recover from the spell he had cast. Either way, she had to keep up with her muggle studies—science, in other words, as well as make her Hogwarts homework, so it wasn't like she wasn't busy.

On night Lilac woke up from a nightmare and sat up. Cedric's dead eyes haunted the back of her mind as she sat up, shaking her head. As she went downstairs to find something to distract herself she found the tv. She switched trough the channels, eventually settling on the newest Disney movie. She expected Disney to become a big thing in the near future, it was a very good animation company and people were gathering for it already.

While looking at the tv and sipping her tea, Lilac found herself thinking.
What if she went to the house? Which house? Sirius had mentioned it, a house he and Regulus grew up in.
At the idea, Lilac smiled. She grabbed parchment and wrote to Sirius, asking about the place. Sirius didn't know anything about the Horcrux's yet, and Lilac wanted it to stay that way for now.
Finally Lilac grabbed the family owl, which was locked up in his cage as usual, and let it go outside.
The owl was grateful to be able to send a letter. Usually her parents prevented the owl from going out.

Once Lilac returned to the tv, she shut it off and cleaned up her tea mug.

The very next morning an owl arrived.

"Dear Lilac,
I can even show you! I asked permission to Dumbledore, and you're allowed to visit. Be sure to be ready by afternoon once you get this. —Snuffles."

Lilac smiled at the name.
"Tom?" Lilac asked softly, but settled with writing, knowing he needed his time to recover.
'I'm visiting Regulus and Sirius' house, where they grew up.' Lilac wrote.

'Be careful, death eaters are active, remember?' Tom wrote back.

Lilac was quick to write back, 'Sure Tom Tom!'

'To cheerful, please don't call me that.'

That afternoon Lilac found someone appearing in front of the fireplace.
"Good afternoon." It was Professor Moody.

Lilac stepped back, "Not to be paranoid, but you're the real one, right?" She grabbed her wand, feeling more safe as she did so.

"No poli juice to be detected." Moody said with a shrug, "I am to use aparation, now grab my arm."

Lilac nodded and did so.
Suddenly, she found herself spinning again, before her feet hit a wooden floor.
She was in a hallway, a front door stood behind her. Moody stepped away and opened a different door, leading to a kitchen. Lilac was left to wonder whether she should follow, but once she did she immediately got overwhelmed by the amount of people.

"Lilac!" Hermione saw her and rushed towards her, "You're here!" She was about to give a hug, but Lilac stepped back.
She looked around at the other people there. This was rather valuable information to Lilac, she knew this might be a secret hideout Dumbledore used.
There were some Weasleys, Remus sat at the table, a woman with pink hair and Sirius. Lilac wasn't pleased to see Snape glaring at her.

Sirius got up and walked towards Lilac, expecting a hug. Lilac didn't know why, but she didn't move towards him.
"So this is where you grew up?" Lilac asked Sirius, "Is Dumbledore stuffing his army here now?"

Ron let out a laugh, "Yeah, as if."

Sirius just grinned, "It's something compared to that."